Hans Büchel, an Anabaptist preacher and hymn writer, born in Murau in the Murtal (Salzburg), was one of the spokesmen of the Anabaptists in the Frankenthal disputation instituted by the Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate (28 May to 19 June 1571). He was a nonresident representative, but did not attend all the sessions. He seems to have been an important leader of the South German Anabaptists; this is indicated by his being chosen as the speaker of the Anabaptists at the opening of the disputation. However, on 6 June a preacher from the Palatinate, Rauff Bisch of Obernheim, took his place. Büchel had appeared in public before this; when soon after the disputation at Pfeddersheim the theologians assembled at Worms in 1557 recommended the death penalty against the Anabaptists in their pamphlet, Prozess, wie es soll gehalten werden mit den Wiedertäufern, he wrote a long poem of consolation which begins, "Ein gfare zeit vor nie erhört, seit Gott erschuf Himmel und Erd" (20 stanzas). It is found in the Ausbund, No. 46, and also in Wackernagel, Kirchenlied V, 740. In addition the following of his hymns are still extant: (1) "Als man zählt tausend fünfhundert Jahr, sieben und fünfzig eben" (20 stanzas, Ausbund No. 29 and Wackernagel V, 738); (2) "Ambrosius klärlich beschrieb ein geschieht von christenlicher Lieb" (17 stanzas, Ausbund No. 9 and Wackernagel V, 737); (3) "Es begab sich auf ein zeite, als ich vertrieben war" (32 stanzas, Ausbund No. 45 and Wackernagel V, 749; (4) "Herr, starker Gott ins Himmels Thron, ich bitt durch deinen lieben Sohn" (21 stanzas, Ausbund No. 71 and Wackernagel V, 743). The first two of these are martyr hymns; the first is dedicated to Algerius who was burned at the stake in Rome in 1557, the second to a maiden and a youth whom Valerius executed. In the other Büchel laments the troubles and persecutions of the Anabaptists. Wackernagel's assumption that Büchel is also the author of the songs in the Ausbund signed "H. B." is incorrect; these songs were written by Hans Betz. Very little is known of Büchel's life and work. Of his later period we know only that in 1584 he lived in Wildeck (near Heilbronn) under the protection of Albrecht of Löwenstein.